Payday 3 Beta Starts This Week, And It's Open To Everyone Except PlayStation Users

Deep Silver and Starbreeze have announced that an open beta for Payday 3 is coming very soon, as it's set to begin later this week across PC and Xbox (but not PlayStation).

The technical open beta, as it's called, runs September 8-11 and features one heist for players to check out before the game officially releases on September 21. This is an open beta, which means everyone can try it out without needing a code, key, or any other means.

Anyone who tries the beta and isn't totally impressed should know that the Payday 3 beta is based on a version of the game from April 2023 and "is not a final representation" of the game. The content available in the open beta is the same as the closed beta earlier this year.

What's in the beta?

The Payday 3 beta features the characters Dallas, Hoxton, Chains, and Wolf--each is playable and each has their own special skillset. The heist is called "No Rest for the Wicked" and it has players trying to break into a bank vault and get away with the cash. Players can try a stealth approach and try to keep a low profile, or they can go in like an action movie with guns blazing. The beta supports all difficulties and has a level cap of 22. Weapon level progression stops at 8 for the beta.

The Payday 3 beta FAQ confirms that progress will not carry forward to the full game. And to reiterate an earlier point, the Payday 3 beta represents an old, out-of-date version of the game. Skills, weapons, weapon mods, tools, accessories, and AI behavior have all been updated multiple times already and these changes will be reflected in the final version of the game due out this month.

Payday 3 releases September 1 on PC Game Pass, Steam, and the Epic Games Store, in addition to Xbox Game Pass for Series X|S and PlayStation 5.